Basic Instinct(1992)

TriStar Pictures

R
2h 7m

Release Date: Mar 20, 1992 | Wide

67%
59%
B+
7.1

A violent police detective investigates a brutal murder that might involve a manipulative and seductive novelist.

Releases

Original Release | Mar 20, 1992

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Box Office Results

Updated as of Mar 27, 2026 06:57 PM ET

Results

Opening Weekend US & Canada:
$15,129,385
Total US & Canada:
$117,727,224
Total International
$235,200,000
Total Worldwide:
$352,927,224

Current Showtimes

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(U.S. Only)

Director & Top Cast

Paul Verhoeven
Director

Michael Douglas
Det. Nick Curran

Sharon Stone
Catherine Tramell

George Dzundza
Det. Gus Moran

Jeanne Tripplehorn
Dr. Beth Garner

Denis Arndt
Lt. Phil Walker

Leilani Sarelle

Roxy Hardy

Bruce A. Young

Det. Sam Andrews

Chelcie Ross

Captain Talcott

Dorothy Malone

Hazel Dobkins

Wayne Knight

ADA John Correli

Daniel von Bargen

Lt. Martin Nilsen

Stephen Tobolowsky

Dr. Lamott

Benjamin Mouton

Detective Harrigan

Jack McGee

Sheriff

Bill Cable

Johnny Boz

Stephen Rowe

Internal Affairs Investigator

Mitch Pileggi

Internal Affairs Investigator

Technical Specifications

Sound Mix: Dolby SR

Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1

Other Details

Country of Origin: France,United States

Language: English,Spanish

Summaries

Plot Summary

When rock star Johnny Boz is viciously stabbed to death with an ice pick during sex by a mysterious blonde woman, homicide detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) is sent to investigate. The only suspect is Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a crime novelist who was the last person to be seen with Boz on the night he died. Nick and his partner, Gus Moran, visit her Pacific Heights mansion, but they find only Catherine's lesbian lover, Roxy, who sends them to Catherine's Stinson Beach house. When they ask Catherine about her relationship with Boz, she shows little emotion at hearing he is dead. Nick and Gus, along with their superiors, discover that Catherine has written a novel about a former rock star who was killed in the same way as Boz (stabbed in bed with an ice pick, hands tied together with a silk scarf). During questioning by detectives, including Nick, at police headquarters, Catherine engages in provocative behavior, refuses to extinguish her cigarette, and re-crosses her legs - her short skirt revealing that she is not wearing underwear.Nick, who accidentally shot two tourists while high on cocaine, attends counseling sessions with police psychologist Dr. Beth Garner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), with whom he has had an affair. Nick goes to a bar with co-workers after the interrogation and is taunted by Lieutenant Marty Nilsen, an internal affairs investigator bent on making life difficult for Nick. Beth arrives and Nick leaves with her. They go to her apartment, where aggressive foreplay escalates into sexual assault. Nick learns that Catherine has a troubled history: Her parents were killed in a boating accident when she was an adolescent, leaving her a fortune; one of her college counselors, Noah Goldstein, was stabbed in his sleep with an ice pick when Catherine was attending UC Berkeley, and her former fiance, boxer Manny Vasquez, was killed in the ring during a prize fight in Atlantic City. He also discovers that Catherine makes a habit of befriending murderers, including Hazel Dobkins, a woman who stabbed her husband and children for no apparent reason.During a visit to her house Catherine taunts Nick with information that should be confidential. As a police psychologist, Beth is the only person with access to that information. Nick confronts Beth and she admits that she handed his file to Nilsen, who threatened to discharge Nick if he could not evaluate him directly. An enraged Nick storms into Nilsen's office, assaults him, and accuses him of having sold Nick's file to Catherine. Nilsen then suspends Nick, who goes home and spends the evening drinking. Beth visits him but he throws her out after a heated argument. Nilsen is found dead in his car later that night, shot once in the head with a .38 caliber revolver. Nick is the prime suspect because of their recent altercation.A torrid affair between Nick and Catherine begins with the air of a cat-and-mouse game. Catherine explains that she will base her next novel's character - a cop falling for the wrong woman only to be killed by her - on Nick, while at the same time he declares his love for her and his unchanged intention to nail her for Boz's murder.A jealous Roxy tries to run Nick over with Catherine's car but is killed in a crash during a car chase. Her death reveals that she too has a murderous past - she killed her two brothers with a razor when she was a teenager (because juvenile arrests are sealed until the individual's death, this record did not turn up earlier). Catherine seems genuinely saddened by Roxy's death and Nick begins to doubt her guilt. Catherine later reveals that a previous lesbian encounter at college went awry when the girl, Lisa Hoberman, became obsessed with her. Nick identifies the girl as Beth Garner, who acknowledges the encounter but claims it was Catherine who became obsessed. It is also discovered that Beth's husband was killed in an unsolved drive-by shooting, shot with a .38 caliber revolver.Nick visits Catherine's house. Before Catherine comes into the room, he sees on a printer the final pages of Catherine's new detective book. He quickly reads a few lines, in which the fictional detective finds his partner lying dead with his legs protruding from the doors of an elevator. Catherine comes in and explains that she has finished her book, and coldly ends the affair. Upset, Nick meets Gus, who has arranged to meet with Catherine's college roommate at a hotel to find out what really went on between Catherine and Beth. As Nick waits in the car, Gus enters the hotel elevator. As he exits the elevator a hooded figure jumps out and stabs him multiple times in the neck with an ice pick. Nick figures out there is trouble brewing and runs into the building, but he arrives too late to save Gus and finds him lying dead with his legs protruding from the doors of the elevator. Hearing the floor creak, Nick grabs Gus' gun and turns to find Beth standing in the hallway, explaining she received a message to meet Gus there. Nick suspects that she murdered Gus and, as Beth moves her hand in her pocket, he shoots her. Beth tells Nick with her final breath that she loved him.A dejected Nick checks her pocket, to find only her keys. The police arrive, and in a staircase discover a blond wig, an SFPD raincoat, and an ice pick, the weapon used to murder Gus, concluding that Beth ditched the items when she heard Nick coming up. A search of Beth's apartment turns up the evidence needed to brand her as the killer of Boz, Gus, Nilsen, and presumably her own husband-the matching revolver, Catherine's novels, and photos chronicling the writer's life. At police headquarters, all the other detectives quickly piece together the story and conclude that Beth was the killer. Nick sits on his desk, confused and dejected, knowing based on Catherine's foreknowledge of the manner of Gus' death that she must actually have been the killer and that she must have set Beth up.Nick returns to his apartment where he is met by Catherine, knowing she's the killer. She explains her reluctance to commit to him, but then the two make love. Afterward, the conversation turns toward their possible future as a couple. Nick looks wary of her. While talking Nick turns his back on Catherine as she slowly reaches for something underneath the bed. He suggests their future will comprise sex and children. Catherine says she hates children and Nick then suggests their future will then just involve sex. At this Catherine stops reaching for what was under the bed and she throws her arms around Nick, convincing him, and the two resume making love as the camera slowly pans down to show what she was reaching for under the bed: an ice pick.

Storyline

A former rock star, Johnny Boz, is brutally killed during sex, and the case is assigned to detective Nick Curran of the SFPD. During the investigation, Nick meets Catherine Tramell, a crime novelist who was Boz's girlfriend when he died. Catherine proves to be a very clever and manipulative woman, and though Nick is more or less convinced that she murdered Boz, he is unable to find any evidence. Later, when Nilsen, Nick's rival in the police, is killed, Nick suspects of Catherine's involvement in it. He then starts to play a dangerous lust-filled mind game with Catherine to nail her, but as their relationship progresses, the body count rises and contradicting evidences force Nick to start questioning his own suspicions about Catherine's guilt. — Soumitra Former rock star and San Francisco nightclub owner Johnny Boz is found murdered in his bed. Detective Nick Curran is assigned to the case; he has a history of alcoholism and drug abuse although he is clean now. The prime suspect is Catherine Tramell, an attractive and manipulative novelist who had been seeing Boz for a while. Police psychiatrist Beth Gardner (who happens to be Nick's ex-girlfriend) is brought in on the case when it is discovered that Boz's murder was copied directly from one of Catherine's novels. Nick starts to get too involved and everyone seems to be a suspect. — Col Needham <col@imdb.com> Nick Curran is in charge of the investigation of a brutal murder of a rock star, who has been killed using an ice pick. All the evidence points to a beautiful woman, Catherine, as the main suspect of the crime. Catherine is a psychologist and she's written one crime novel, a story in which a similar crime is described. Curran goes to Catherine's house to interrogate her about the victim and what happened that night. Apparently, Catherine was a formal lover of the musician and she even spent that night with him, but she claims to have not killed him. Nick feels attracted immediately to Catherine, but she's a quite intelligent woman who manages to avoid his questions cleverly, using her physical attributes and seductive personality. Catherine has a romantic relationship with another woman, but that won't be an obstacle for Nick, who everyday seems to be much more interested in her. But Nick's been checked by a psychologist, Beth, who was his girlfriend in the past, because the detective had an alcohol problem. But the sexual attraction that Nick feels for Catherine, seems to provoke the problem again. Nick becomes Catherine's lover, a fact that threatens to hinder the investigation and puts in danger his life, discovering a wild sexuality never experimented before. Nick's convinced that Catherine is innocent, but maybe love and sex are blinding him in his way of unfolding the truth. — Alejandro Frias